The Quiet Revolution? The Labour Party and Welfare Conditionality

Labour's 2017 general election manifesto contained a pledge to ‘end the punitive sanctions regime’ in the British welfare state. Whilst the specific implications of this pledge were not elaborated, such a policy would nevertheless constitute a profound break with a welfare consensus spanning over twenty years. The depth of the suggested changes on welfare are also evident in the scale of reform proposed to disability benefits, as well as plans—confirmed in August 2018 by the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell—to pilot universal basic income. Collectively, these policies would seemingly be deeply at odds with public opinion on the benefits system, which over the course of the last two decades has significantly hardened. Yet despite the seemingly radical and controversial nature of the policy, it received very little media or public attention during the election campaign. This article explores Labour's ‘quiet revolution’ on welfare, examining whether Labour's new welfare approach is indeed a bold attempt to reshape public opinion on welfare or, alternatively, a mostly pragmatic reaction to changing social attitudes. The argument presented is that whilst there are persuasive explanations that Labour is responding to a change in the public mood, there is also evidence of a more ambitious goal at stake: the aim of reshaping, not simply responding to, public opinion on the welfare state.     

Personal values and value congruence of public administration graduate students: An exploratory study in China

Explorations on the value profiles of current and prospective public organisation employees in China are scarce. The current study investigates this critical issue. Data were collected via a questionnaire from graduate students enrolled in a school of public administration in China. The sample consisted of both full‐time students who were prepared to pursue their careers in public organisations upon graduation, and part‐time students who were mostly public organisation employees. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) and analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were used for data analysis. The results show that there are consistent value preferences among all students, and some noteworthy patterns in the relationship between value profiles and demographic and work‐related features. The results also shed light on whether a unique value set could differentiate various types of organisations, and demonstrate that employees in the core public service perceive higher level of value congruence than those in parapublic sectors. These findings provide implications and insights for the management practices in public organisations.     

Cheap talk,costly talk,crazy talk: patterns in North Korea’s English language propaganda*

This article examines the patterns in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (North Korea’s) use of hostile rhetoric in its internationally-directed messaging. The article first places North Korea’s belligerent rhetoric in the context of that country’s capacity to threaten the US and its Northeast Asian allies; indeed many analysts worry that Pyongyang’s rhetoric represents a conflict escalation risk or even a casus belli. Following this, the article discusses the common explanations – irrationality/incompetence, lack of audience costs, inter alia – for why the North Korean regime employs such hostile rhetoric, and finds these explanations wrong or misleading. The main analysis section describes the results of a study of 10 years of English-language propaganda published by the KCNA (North Korea’s state news agency). A multiple regression model is used to test the relationship between North Korea’s hostile rhetoric and a set of independent variables. The statistical tests indicate a mixed correlation of North Korean rhetoric to the independent variables. One major finding is that there is no correlation between hostile North Korean rhetoric and the country’s kinetic provocations. The conclusion discusses the role that North Korea’s rhetoric plays within the country’s larger adversarial relationship to the US, South Korea, and Japan.     

Public Wi‐Fi provision by Australian local government authorities

Investment by Australian local government authorities (LGAs) in public Wi‐Fi (PWF) provision has grown substantially in recent years. PWF represents the first significant venture of LGAs into telecommunications, a field of national jurisdiction, and thus is a precursor of wider local investment in digital communication technologies, particularly the Internet of Things and other ‘smart city’ infrastructure. However, there has been little published analysis of PWF provision and use in Australia. This knowledge gap limits understanding of the rationales, business models, and uses and impact of investment in these networks and offers little guidance for local authorities and communities contemplating wider ventures in the field of digital networks. This article draws on a national survey of PWF provision by LGAs, together with interview data and critical analysis of policy and institutional settings, to present an overview of local PWF provision in Australia. The analysis highlights some familiar problems associated with LGA infrastructure investment and service delivery, as well as some novel challenges posed for local managers by digital communication networks. Following an empirical mapping of PWF provision in Australia, we explore three significant themes that our research in this field highlights: accountability and transparency, competence in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) and evaluation.     

How interest groups influence public opinion: Arguments matter more than the sources

Through what mechanism do interest groups shape public opinion on concrete policies? In this article, three hypotheses are proposed that distinguish between the effect of the arguments conveyed by interest groups and the effect of interest groups as source cues. Two survey experiments on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TIPP) and the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change allow the testing of these hypotheses. The resulting evidence from several countries shows that, with respect to interest groups’ attempts at shaping public opinion, arguments matter more than their sources. This is so even when accounting for people's trust in the interest groups that serve as source cues and for people's level of information about a policy. The finding that interest groups affect public opinion via arguments rather than as source cues has implications for the literature on elite influence on public opinion and the normative evaluation of interest group activities.     

传播要素视角下网络衍生舆情成因的多维分析

衍生舆情是近年来网络舆情所呈现的新特点,尤其由突发公共事件引发的网络舆情,衍生舆情的出现几乎成为一种必然,其所造成的“二次影响”甚至超过原生舆情,给舆情危机的防范和应对带来了更大的挑战。基于此,从传播要素的视角探讨在由突发公共事件引发网络舆情中出现衍生舆情的成因。研究认为,突发公共事件是衍生舆情出现的前提,其模糊性、关联性和刺激性会对衍生舆情产生直接影响;政府、媒体和公众是衍生舆情形成的重要因素,在信息传播中它们基于各自利益诉求而呈现的不同行为逻辑是衍生舆情产生的根本原因。     

Governance gaps in eradicating forced labor: From global to domestic supply chains

A growing body of scholarship analyzes the emergence and resilience of forced labor in developing countries within global value chains. However, little is known about how forced labor arises within domestic supply chains concentrated within national borders, producing products for domestic consumption. We conduct one of the first studies of forced labor in domestic supply chains, through a cross‐industry comparison of the regulatory gaps surrounding forced labor in the United Kingdom. We find that understanding the dynamics of forced labor in domestic supply chains requires us to conceptually modify the global value chain framework to understand similarities and differences across these contexts. We conclude that addressing the governance gaps that surround forced labor will require scholars and policymakers to carefully refine their thinking about how we might design operative governance that effectively engages with local variation.     

公安质量管理的标杆机制

公安服务水平和质量已经成为公民评价执政党与政府的形象与效率的日益重要的指标之一,如何提高公安质量,从体制或机制上确保公安产品的合法性与科学性,已经成为公安部门关注的热点。本文从质量管理机制的视角,引出公安质量管理的标杆机制,以期为我国提升公安质量起到支持作用。     

论民族地区传统知识的积极性保护机制

民族地区传统知识丰富,随着民族文化产业的兴起,急需采取积极性保护机制。积极性保护机制,是指建立类似TRIPS的传统知识保护机制,授予传统知识所有者知识产权,如专利或其他类似权利,保护的核心是授予独占权,其目的是在现有制度资源条件下尽量实现传统知识的资源权益。民族地区传统知识的积极性保护机制主要包括:地方专门法制度、传统知识数据库权、补偿性责任制度等三个层面。     

环境公益诉权及其程序保障——以检察机关提起环境公益诉讼为视角

实践表明,我国保护环境的传统模式即行政执法方式是失灵的。当前,探索司法介入环境保护的新模式是必要的,而环境司法的首要问题就是环境公益诉权的问题。根据我国实际情况,赋予检察机关环境公益诉权不仅是必要的,而且是可行的。同时,还要探索检察机关在提起环境公益诉讼过程中的诉讼地位、处分权的规制、证明责任的分配、诉讼时效等程序机制,以达到既保障且诉权、又加以合理规制的目的。